By JENALIA MORENO Copyright 2009 Houston Chronicle
Oct. 9, 2009, 10:34PM
Brett Coomer Chronicle
Phung Nhu Truong of Houston, a former Vietnamese army colonel, said he is against a consulate being opened here as long as Vietnam is communist.
Hundreds of yellow and red South Vietnamese flags attached to plastic poles lean against the wall of Phung Nhu Truong's garage, ready for a protest of Vietnam's new consulate office in Houston.
Another 100 folded flags sit in the trunk of the former Vietnamese army colonel's car so he can distribute them to protestors to wave in front of the nation's second Vietnamese consulate.
Truong and other Vietnamese immigrants are ready to mobilize a massive demonstration against the government's human rights record, but there's one problem: They don't know when the office will open or where it will be located.
In August, the Vietnamese Embassy announced that former Vietnamese foreign ministry spokesman Le Dung had moved here and will be the consul general.
That office was scheduled to open last month, but the Vietnamese government has not notified the U.S. State Department that it has signed a lease and it has not announced an opening date, as protocol requires.
Vietnamese Embassy officials in Washington, D.C. did not return calls or e-mails in the past month, and Dung could not be reached.
Committee of 300
Vietnamese immigrants who fled the nation after the Vietnam War, like Truong, believe several protests held in Houston's Chinatown in the last year have persuaded the government to stay mum about its new address.
The community also protested in front of the Galleria when Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung visited Houston in June 2008. In 2007, a Houston-based Vietnamese human rights group used a billboard campaign to raise awareness about human and religious rights violations in modern-day Vietnam.
“They know they are not welcome here in town,” said Kim Nguyen, a Vietnamese immigrant and community activist.
Regardless of when the office opens, several Vietnamese immigrants said they are ready to protest in front of the consulate.
“There's no freedom, no democracy in Vietnam's communist regime,” said Truong, 75,president of the Vietnamese Veterans Association. “If there's no freedom or democracy, we're against them.”
A committee of more than 300 people, including Truong, has organized to plan the protest, said Al Hoang, a Vietnamese attorney who is running for City Council.
“Their presence here is like they're bringing the regime over here,” Hoang said.
The embassy's Web site says the office will represent Houston's large Vietnamese community, which numbers 63,853 according to the latest Census data. And the government wants the office to help foster trade between the southeast Asian nation and Houston, which swapped $369 million in goods last year, according to the Greater Houston Partnership.
“The opening of a general consulate in the biggest city of Texas, home to many Vietnamese-American people, will also create a direct link between the overseas Vietnamese community in the U.S. with the homeland,” the site said.
Petitions, letters
But Vietnamese immigrants here said many of them are now American citizens and don't need Vietnam to represent them.
“We are like Jewish people. How can you accept Nazi Germany to be your representative?” said Vu Thanh Thuy, a Vietnamese immigrant and co-owner of Radio Saigon Houston, a local radio show devoted to the community.
To keep the consulate out of Houston, they've signed petitions and U.S. Rep. Al Green, D-Houston, has sent letters to the U.S. State Department detailing his community's opposition to the office.
“Clearly, my constituents in my district are very vocal and opposed to it,” Green said. “I think their opinions should be respected.”
Some Vietnamese immigrants support the opening of the office, especially if it can help boost business ties with Vietnam.
“At an economic time like this more than ever, our city needs trade and opportunities, and we have to take that into consideration,” said Danny Nguyen, a member of Mayor Bill White's International Affairs and Development Council.
Vietnamese government officials likely hoped that in a business friendly city like Houston, they could open an office here with less opposition from the immigrant community, said Long Le, director of international initiatives for global studies, at the University of Houston C.T. Bauer College of Business
“What they want from it is really a trade bureau in Houston,” Le said. “The politics divides community. For us, politics has to come first. Then the community can think about economics.”
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